OK I am now sitting in the Cadillace Lounge (?) having my own private cocktail hour - LOL A singer was practicing her songs and she was wonderful - will find out who she was - she really has a good voice - oh darn - I am done - ok later all
Thursday, August 2, 2007
OK – I am for once TOTALLY speechless. The sights I saw yesterday have left me totally in awe and I am proud to say that I am not a robot. I feel and I cry. I was so totally overwhelmed at the thought that I was accomplishing something else off my list of 101 things to do before I die, that WHERE I WAS didn’t really sink in until I was on the bus ride back to the Magic.
I mean – there I was, standing, dripping sweat (OK – I know – TMI) but I was ACTUALLY in line for the X-ray screening to be allowed into St. Peter’s Basilica. OMG! I was actually here. The culmination of 41 yrs! Imagine that!
The day started early for us – the 3 older girls went on the Ultimate Rome Experience, they ended up going on another tour as their Tour of the Illuminati was cancelled due to low participation. They were able to sign up for another tour which took them to the Coliseum, the Trevi Fountain and others. However, I will be describing what I went through and experienced.
Our day started at 8:45 am in Rocking Bar D. We then boarded a bus to Rome. When we finally got there, we ended up hitting the outside of the Coliseum and the other ruins in the local area. The ruins were awesome. I never expected to see actual artifacts thrown haphazardly around as if they were nothing. Let me take a minute to tell you something – I ended up taking over 500 pictures alone in Rome.
I was so busy taking pictures that I missed some information however, rest assured that I was able to take a picture of it! LOL J The Coliseum (the outside) was magnificent. To walk the cobblestones (and no I did not trip) that ancient Romans walked and to see how they have been worn flat by years and weather, to see the ancient tracks of chariots and realize that millions of people have placed their feet where I have placed and will be placing today, is mind-boggling.
We got lunch after the ruins at a restaurant called Arturo’s Restaurante, we started with a salad that contained lettuce, corn, tuna, strips and we placed oil and vinegar as our dressing. I finished mine but Steve and April did not. We were served Red wine, white wine and bottled water. Since I am not a wine drinker, I asked for a coke for myself and April (I needed the caffeine) when it came to pay, I asked the guide should I ask for the bill as soft drinks were not usually included. She told me to adopt a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Which I did and we did not pay. Its interesting to note that Italy’s coke comes in small, cute, quaint 330 ml cans. They have 139 calories per can. Oh well, I now see why so many Italians are so thin! They walk EVERYWHERE! Lunch main course, was DELICIOUS lasagna. I must say that I don’t know if it was the hunger but OMG was that lasagna was the most delicious I have ever tasted. This was followed by a tiramisu dessert which unfortunately, I did not care for. I am NOT a chocolate (GASP!) lover and I don’t care for strong expresso so I was content with my salad and main dish. On the way out I happened to run into the owner , Arturo. He was probably the size of Yesenia or Megan (less than 5 ft) but so cute. He meandered along the restaurant and I took a minute to say in my poor example of Spanish/Italian that his food was delicious! He thanked me by hugging me and kissing me on the side of the cheek.
From the restaurant we headed over to St. Peter’s Basilica. Went through x-ray and after a short wait, entered the basilica. I was stunned at the enormity of the church, the ornateness and the vastness of the church. Immediately upon entering you face the jubilee doors that are only opened once every 25 years the last time they were opened was in 2001? I think. Anyway, we literally shuffled our way into the church were I immediately headed off flashing away on my way to my 550 shots of the day. Little did I know! Then we were ushered to the right to see the famous La Peita marble statue. It is behind a glass partition so unfortunately, I was not able to get a good picture with all the flashbulbs going off so instead, after getting a shot, I headed off to explore. I shot pictures of a mummified pope, the entryway to the catacombs below the floor where some popes are buried. And I even got to snap a picture of my namesake, St. Veronica – couldn’t resist that one – that maybe my only claim to fame! J LOL
After, we were quickly ushered from one statue to another. I didn’t realize until later that there is a catwalk above church which people can do and allows you an aerial view of all of Rome. ALAS! Had I known! SIGH!
From there, we were taken to buy some souvenirs from a store across the street from the Vatican. I managed to buy 10 postcards with stamps as we only had 20 minutes to shop. Let me tell you, that is NOT enough time. For those that don’t realize, the Vatican City is the SMALLEST NATION in the world and is a sovereign nation with its own postmark and ruler. The Pope!
After, we were then taken to the back side of the Vatican to experience what was truly a breathless, priceless memory. Normally, the Vatican allows about 20,000 people in the afternoon to the Vatican Museums then the Sistene Chapel. Because the Mouse is so famous, they had contracted to allow only Disney and some other special guests entry. So instead of having 20,000 people to mill through, we got to experience it with almost no crowd at all. Only about 300-500 guests were being allowed in that day. When I post my pictures, you will notice that in some it looks deserted. This only came about because I was “constantly being left behind” from wanting shots with as few amounts of heads and feet’s as possible. LOL Poor Steve and April, they had to experience me paniciking and running to catch up with them. Also, keep in mind that my mom has instilled in me a “proper dress code for a place of that magnitude” and I was wearing a sundress, carried a short-sleeve, light-weight sweater and my Easy Spirit tennis shoe/sandal. This was do to the fact that the day before Rome, Goofy accidentally kicked and bruised one of my toes while talking a semi-formal picture - thus not allowing me to wear my intended shoe with the dress. While it hurts like the dickens, he actually did me a favor. I was able to keep up with all the walking, and not further hurt my shot. So, while it may look funny to some of you – I was totally comfortable with my shoes.
OK – so here I am – running through the Vatican Museum in my sundress, taking pictures and sqatting down in the most unfortunate places to get shots that I deemed are unusual – like the underbelly of a carved, magnificent sarcophagus. It had something written on it which caught my eye and the date carved in roman numerals. I just had to get it. All the sights, the paintings, the carvings of animals, the NAKED statues – LOL – just had me running. Also special to this tour was the ability to take shots in the tapestry wing of the museum WITHOUT FLASH of course and I was able to stay still long enough to take some shots. Remember folks, these “rugs” are almost 2 millennium! Also, one of my favorite places to visit as they were kept air-conditioned! Needless to say that Steve stayed by my side throughout most of this wing.
Oh Yeah, the ceiling of the wings are all painted al fresco and are so totally jaw-dropping, gorgeous – I was totally speechless. I think I walked almost the entire time through the wings, shooting upwards with my taped together flash (read previous blogs for the answer to your question – what happened to my flash) and my battery dying camera. Luckily, I had my spare on it. Remind all to tell you what happened to my camera WHEN we got to dinner. I tell you, my patience is almost saintly on this trip – ROTFLMAO!
Ok, the ceilings, statues, tapestries are stunning. When taken into consideration that they are as old as Christ, I wanted to tear up. There was definitely not enough time to begin to enjoy what I was taking in via my camera lens, since I didn’t have a camcorder, I needed to rely on my camera. As I mentioned, I can do so on over 550 pictures and over 300 of those dedicated to the Vactican Museum alone!
Let me digress a minute and tell you that upon our entering the Vatican Museum, we were the 2nd party to be allowed in in the afternoon. You line up in front of these ancient looking (this entryway was made for jubilee celebration when an astounding amount of people were expected to walk through the doors. So they made this modern “old” looking entryway which is AC’d! Yeah – insert image of dancing bananas here. Steve managed to site toilets and we quickly headed off to use them before our trip into the museum and Sistene Chapel.
Ok – I’m back. So as our guide waited for no one – I was constantly running to keep up. I missed a lot of vocal on our handy-dandy, low-tech audiofone. You would think that a tour company would come up with a better system than a walkie-talkie type of headphone which you hang around your neck with a tube (literally) that you insert into your walkie-talkie thingy and then other end into your ear. Let me tell you folks, by the end of the day, my ear canal was throbbing. Also, we were constantly warned to turn it off when not in use as the batter might die. So, as those of you know, something ALWAYS happened to me – I can type with a smile – that my battery lasted the entire time – but only because I was VERY vigilant about turning it off when we were apart.
So, we finally get into the Sistene Chapel where we have been warned numerous times that photos will not be allowed, much less flash, through this narrow arch tunnel. Really, had I not known that I was heading into a place, I would have thought we would be heading down into a tunnel. Nothing spectacular about it – I did take a shot – why I don’t know buy in retrospect am I glad I did. For once we got into the “room” you went – we’re here?
The room itself is not what you would expect, it is the size of 3-5 story in height small banquet room. It is devoid of any furniture except for some stone marble benches lined against the wall. You enter on the right-hand side of the room via a small doorway, about the size of a bedroom door. You kinda have to duck if your tall. Don’t know what Cardinal Roger Mahoney would do – stoop I guess. The shorter ones would just walk in I guess. OK so back to my description, the doorway is actually unforgettable, the large “hallway” is mainly open and at the back of the room is a confessional from way back in eternity time – LOL. There is an alter placed at the front of the room with 4 candleabras and one cross with Jesus on it. Very plain and not decorated ornately at all. But the simpleness of the cross was just beautiful.
I will take this minute to tell you all that I was struck speechless. I was ACTUALLY standing in the middle of the Sistene Chapel with about 300 other folks. And while I thought it was crowded – we were not standing like sardines in a can. I was able to walk around. Normally, I am very law-abiding to a point. But when I spied several folks using a camcorder and shooting pictures, I ran and I mean walk-ran to my guide to confirm whether we could. Her answer? Well, normally we can’t but the guard is not saying anything. That was all I needed. I started shooting away. The poor lady must now think that the crazy lady with the camera was absolutely gonzo batty! While 99.99% of us adhered to the no flash policy, 1 person used it and those around them quickly admonished them as we did not want to chance being stopped.
The Sistene Chapel is absolutely gorgeous. We were admonished a couple of times when the place got too loud but mainly was hushed tones that were used. The chapel was long – rectangular in size and in my estimation which is worth beans actually could easily hold 500-1000 sardines if you wanted. Um….I meant humans if you packed tight. ROTFL.
The walls are so unbelievably beautiful that I am left speechless. I even texted my friend Pam with those exact words. There are no words to describe what I saw. The closest I can come to is this. Have you all been to Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas? Or the Bellagio? Or Paris hotel mall upstairs? Well, imagine any of those ceilings – remember they are curved and painted! The ones at the Venetian are wallpapered so imagine that and you got the Sistene Chapel.
Imagine my surprise when April walks up to me and asks me – where is St. Barts and Michaelango’s image on the wall. Let me state that the short end of the rectangle room was painted al fresco – right behind the alter that I spoke about above. I have a picture I’m hoping to upload when we get to Paris with an image I took of it. I had to be very careful as I was not using flash and the room surprisingly was very tall in height. The dormer windows in the walls were placed high near the top of the ceiling thus not conducive to taking properly-lighted photos of the place. But I did manage a few – insert image of teeth-baring smiley here!
Back to my poor description of the place, the whole room tells a story, you have Jesus coming down on clouds, St. Bart’s (I’ve taken liberty to shorten names since we are a first glance basis now - J ) entry into heaven and even the pope’s visage at the time of Michaelango’s painting (was it Sextus the fifth? ) OK all so I am not at all that avid a history lover. ROTFL. I cannot begin to describe what I saw so I will post a few pictures as soon as I can. Its pretty bad when the ship’s internet manager suggests that you don’t upload anything because it will eat your minutes up. So if anyone wants to see some, stay tuned . I will try and edit this post to add them later.
After the chapel, which we got to spend about 15 minutes in and I managed to snap a picture of Sleeping Beauty in full on rest mode (DH), we exited and were finally done with our tour. Here’s where the rest of the condensed versons comes in.
We get on the bus, in front of me was this family with a masticating son playing his Nintendo and chomping away like a freaking cow. Boy, was I going absolutely mad. For those that don’t know me, one of my pet peeves is hearing open mouth chewing. So almost from leaving the ship, this parent gave this boy about 6 yrs old some gum which he proceeded to chew the heck out off and annoy not just myself but the entire 3 rows behind me! At first I thought it was just me as I have a problem with Steve chewing like that but turns out in retrospect when we almost left them behind that I wasn’t the only bothered by this. We all ended up conversing about how we would love to leave them behind. Our consensus was that it really wasn’t the kid’s fault, but what about the mom? What has happened to manners today? When I was raising my kids, if the kids acted up – we got up from the table and took them outside if we were in a restaurant. But I think that someone didn’t tell the parents of another screaming child – over age 4 that screaming kids around lunch time and other patrons is not cool. This child, when she didn’t get what she wanted would proceed to throw a screaming tantrum and throw herself on the floor. Even at the Vatican Museum! Folks, I do not recommend small children to come, frankly, the beauty of the place is lost to them and those around you might not get to experience a wonderful, quiet beautiful moment because it is interrupted with tired children that don’t really want to be there and tend to get underfoot. OK – off my masticating cow and tantrum-throwing soapbox.
I eventually tried to get over gum-chewing kid, and instead concentrated on viewing my pic’s on the camera. My seatmate was a Magic employee by the name of Sylvon, who is a bartender in Rocking Bar D. Turns out that he will be doing the crossing too so I managed to corral a picture of him standing in front of the Vatican of him. I intend to give him a photo magnet of him even though he says he’s been there several times. But it’s nice to know that a friendly face is making your drink there. Watch out folks, the crossing will be a wonderful, happening party!!!!
OK got back to the ship about 8:15 pm – long day, we were greeted by Alen, the dining supervisor reminding us that due to the length of most tours, dinner was postphoned to 9 pm. Which really gave us some time go to our room and take a shower. But before we left, I managed to snag a photo with Sailor Mickey and Minnie which I have never been able to do.
I quickly took a shower, went to dinner with everyone and tried a Bellini which I didn’t like, changed to an amaretto and OJ and had a fantastic Turkey slice dinner with risotto rice which April thought was mashed potatoe’s but which I didn’t correct- you all think she noticed? She didn’t say anything – LOL – I can be mean sometimes. ROTFL.
Then by this time, I crashed. I went to bed, brushed my teeth and as it turned out – April had enough stamina to go to teen’s club and managed to stay out until 3 am! GASP! First let me tell you that I do feel safe on the ship. And it was kinda nice to have Steve experience finally staying up late waiting for the kids while I was asleep. A reversal of times for once – I waited up for the other 2 – his turn now!
Ok – I think this will be my record – I will be closing up now, this is too long as it is. I decided to put my memories into typing as Steve and April were still sleeping in. It is now 1:04 am on Friday, August 3 and I am going to muster them up. Tomorrow is Saturday and La Spezia. Another private tour for us and a long one.
I will be off on a hunt as it turns out our servers like to collect shot glasses and magnets and our stateroom hosts has NOT had the opportunity to visit many of our ports due to his job. So for Collin, our drink waiter – a shot glass to finish off his collection set, Vlado, our food waiter, a magnet and an avid traveler himself and for Nigel, our stateroom host, a picture, photo and some memento.
Ok – April will be dining alone tonight as we 5 adults will be heading to Palos – for only DH’s and myself 3rd time and the girls 1st time including Megan. Prior to this cruise – she was too young. OK folks, I hope I didn’t bore you too much – till later.
Stunned in disbelieving silence –
Laura
